The East is a delicate matter, and the cuisine is a secret. After all, where, if not in the kitchen, are the most intimate conversations. Ah, how I would like to be somewhere in faraway Persia and eavesdrop on some magical oriental recipes in order to surprise friends who gathered for an evening meal during Ramadan.
We are incredibly lucky! The famous chef and author of cookbooks, a resident of the UAE, Arina Bundy, decided to give the taste of traditional Persian cuisine throughout Dubai. Recently, the presentation of her new book, “Pomegranates and Roses: My Persian Family Recipes”, was held at Bloomingdale's Home. What is special about these recipes, we asked Ariana herself.
Hello Arina, it’s very interesting to know how it all began? How did this family recipe book come about?
Perhaps for starters I’ll tell you about my family. This should be interesting for you, because my grandfather was Russian, originally from Leningrad, and only then my family moved to Baku, and then to Iran. And my grandmother was Georgian, so I know a lot about Russian culture and customs of the Caucasian peoples.
Unbelievable! You are Iranian by origin, but you also have Russian roots. Please tell me, do you remember your first cooked dish?
As a kid, my signature dish was fried onions! Do not be surprised, just in Iranian cuisine, onions are used everywhere and in large quantities, so they trusted me to fry it. My brother and I also prepared the famous pomegranate jelly, the recipe of which was included in my new book and even, partially, in the name. Pomegranates are private guests in the kitchen of Iranian housewives. True, in my childhood I still loved to eat more than to cook! And my father often preferred eating in restaurants. Therefore, I did not realize that I would once become a cook.
However, later I was sent to study at the culinary school, where I learned the basics of French national cuisine: baking, making chocolate and soufflé - and began to work as a pastry chef. Soon I had an irresistible desire to learn how to cook Iranian dishes according to family recipes, as in childhood. Every time we met with relatives, I enjoyed home cooking, but did not know how to cook it all. And then I began to visit my grandmother in Iran more often to find out, record and try out more and more family recipes, because each of my relatives had their secrets and their memories.
That is, with each recipe is the story of someone from your family necessarily associated? Indeed, national dishes are the history of the whole people, traditions, the taste of the past ...
Without fail, because recipes in families are always passed from mother to daughter, from generation to generation. In my book I tried to capture this connection, because I needed it. I think all women like me will appreciate my contribution and will be able to use this knowledge.
You studied French cuisine, were fond of Iranian culinary skills, but, like every woman, probably you have your own "horse"? After all, some people know how to cook delicious soups, others know how to bake and prepare desserts, and someone simply is an unsurpassed master of meat dishes. So why "Grenades and Roses"?
Yes, I studied the art of confectionery and realized that the confectioner must strictly follow the recipe, weigh everything and measure it. And I have a completely different character - I do everything quickly and spontaneously, I like to improvise at the stove. Of course, you should follow the cooking instructions, but I’m used to perfect everything so that the ingredients are interchangeable, and you can use those products that are at hand. Cooking is not just a science, it is a whole art, so everyone should be able to find their own creative approach!
Returning to the new book, I will say that Iranian cuisine is quite diverse: it widely uses beans, potatoes, tomatoes, rice, meat and nuts. Of course, pomegranates and rose petals in traditional desserts and drinks. Products should always be fresh, natural, right from the garden. Spices are used in small quantities so as not to overshadow the true taste of the original products. But there are secrets, for example, a meat dish prepared according to the Persian (Iranian) recipe will never be hard, on the contrary, it will melt in your mouth. It's all about a special marinade. The Iranians treat cooking meat as a craft, studying and improving it for many years.
It’s probably good that we live in Dubai, where almost any product can be easily found. Tell us about your family's signature dish, without which not a single meal can do, especially on holidays such as Ramadan and Eid?
This Fesenjun is incredibly rich in vitamins, a balanced dish made from pomegranate and walnuts. The secret is that the warm taste of the nut and the cool freshness of the pomegranate give this dish harmony. They usually cook fesenjun in the winter, when it’s cold, because the main rule of Persian cuisine is the right balance of cold and hot, depending on the season and even the age of the person. Nutrition in Persia and in modern Iran is a whole science, verified by millennia.
Ariana, today all nutritionists say that you can’t leave the house without breakfast. And what is a traditional Iranian breakfast?
Oh, breakfast is a kind of morning ritual that energizes for the whole day. In Iran, breakfast is necessarily freshly baked bread, which is served with cherry jam, butter, honey, feta cheese, sweet tea, and sometimes scrambled eggs with onions and tomatoes. The new trend is olives, although this is more from Turkish cuisine.
And yet, why did you decide to present your book right here in Dubai?
To begin with, Dubai is my home, I live here. However, the key point to such a decision was a childhood memory. When I was little and we lived in New York, on Saturdays with my mother we usually went shopping at Bloomingdale's, and after that we had lunch at a nearby restaurant. So when Bloomingdale's opened in Dubai, I decided that I would submit my new book here!
You are a professional chef, have visited and lived in many countries, and which cuisine do you like most?
I love Russian cuisine (especially pies), as well as Japanese. If the dish is well and tasty cooked, then it is not so important to me what country cuisine it belongs to. But since today many people are allergic to certain products, it was important for me that the ingredients in my recipes could always be easily replaced.
Do not remember what the most vivid taste impression you received from a new, first tasted dish? What was it?
I usually cook at home as part of family traditions: everything is natural, balanced, easy to prepare. I like it when the whole family gathers at one table and treats themselves out of a common dish. But once in the Refflets restaurant of the InterContinental Dubai hotel I was served not just delicious food, but sophistication, a work of art! I was delighted, amazed at such a creative approach to food. It was brilliant! The work of the chef Pierre Garnier just struck my imagination so much that I even tried to recreate the recipe, but in my own way, just observing the structure, because it is not difficult for us, the culinary specialists, to figure out the recipes formulas.
So the second book is written, and then what? What ideas, are you already collecting materials for a new creation?
There are a lot of ideas. For example, I would like to make a television show and tell about Iran and its culture in it, traveling from the border with Russia, where everything is dotted with rice fields, to the southern part, where the Rose Festival takes place. Iran is neighboring with many countries, therefore, I have a desire to tell as much as possible about its culture, traditions, life ... Now I have already begun work on my next book. Hopefully housewives will like it too. The Pomegranates and Roses book can be purchased at Bloomingdale's Home in Dubai Mall.
Thank you, Ariana, for such an interesting conversation, we wish you further culinary and creative achievements, and we are waiting for a new book! Good luck
